Aerith's Great Adventure
by ShikakuRin
Summary: Aerith was content. More or less. She would have been happy to join the other Cetra in the Lifestream and sleep if only Cloud would settle down and forgive himself. Unfortunately, a wish on a star sends the savior of Gaia back in time to give him a second chance at saving those that were important to him. What can Aerith do except follow and make her own mark on the past?


Prologue: Gone?!

Aerith floated in the Lifestrea, content that the world had once again been saved. The Remnants were neutralized, Geostigma was cured, and there was finally time to finish rebuilding. The people were starting to pick up their lived once again (and really, how amazing were these people to have the ability to do so after yet another world-ending disaster?) and the flowers were blooming all over the planet. Yes, Aerith floated in the Lifestream. Content.

Content to watch. Content to take on the role of mother to Cloud in his dreams. Content to be the last Cetra. Content to float on, Zack next to her. At least for a while longer. Zack was not a Cetra and so was not tied to the Planet the way she was. He could only hold on for so long before the Lifestream re-claimed his energy. His soul would fade entirely into the Lifestream and then somewhere in the world a little baby boy would be born. A little baby boy with blue eyes, a shock of black hair, and a ready smile. She would get to watch him grown up, fall in love, have kids. It would be painful and wonderful at the same time. Because if her life had been cut short, then so had Zack's. He deserved to have another chance at that life.

 _You're getting glooming again._ Zack sent the though over, a flash of his cocky smile following the words.

 _I am not gloomy._ She protested, her being shinning a bit brighter with her smile. She turned towards him, letting the image of the present float away with the current of the Lifestream.

 _Almost as bad as Spike._ There was an echo of a laugh. A memory of the tilt of his head as he poked fun. _The flowers won't grow if you're so gloomy. Where is my smiling girl?_

 _The flowers have never needed my smile to grow silly._ The levity feels forced, but she turns her thoughts way from the path they were on. There was no reason to think about the inevitable. She really should know that by this point.

 _I need your smile then._ A sense of a hug. And they floated together, intertwined. Communication was easy and required no words. Aerith knew that Zack loved her. She knew that even when he was reborn, he would still dream of the flower girl that was the other part of his soul. He wanted to promise that he would be only hers, but she would not let him. He deserved to live a full life. A life full of love, laugher, and if there was pain, then a family that would help make life worth that pain.

Time had little meaning in the Lifestream. When they parted and Aerith turned to look at the present again, months had gone by. There was progress made, and life was settling back into routine. Cloud was making deliveries. Tifa was worrying about him. Denzel and Marlene were growing up. The seasons kept changing. There was less to watch now. Without a catastrophe looming there was nothing for Aerith to work towards. The need to a sentient force to direct the Lifestream was passed. There other Cetra had long since fallen asleep. Their selves so immersed in the energy of the Planet that there was no room for individual though.

It was just her and Zack. Two stubborn souls holding on to each other and refusing to let go. Then it became one soul. One soul holding a tiny ball of light that was its other half. One last goodbuy. One last heartfelt wish for happiness. One Cetra, alone in the vastness of the Lifestream. Surrounded by life, and yet apart from it. The only one left watching the world pass.

And pass it does. Years flow together. A baby boy born as expected. A precious life, beautiful, and so far way. Growing. Learning. Dreaming. Loving. Painful and wonderful at the same time. She shifts her attention. Looking in on the rest. Tifa with her own children and a husband. Vincent on his path to redemption. Yuffie with her string of lovers who's hears she steals as easily as materia so long ago. Barret a grandfather. Nanaki with his mate, the cubs a joy to watch. Cid bossing the crew of the Highwind, a younger man at the helm. Cloud, still on the road. Still moving. Still searching for something. Still needing the gentle touch to wake him from the nightmares. His spirit restless.

She watches Cloud the most once Zack is reborn. She has always felt like his big sister, and out of everyone he was the one that seemed to still need her. She had hoped that he would be able to forgive himself, but the drive to be alone seemed to indicate that it was not going to happen. He had settled within his own skin, but there was a sense of waiting when she watched him. A sense that his story was not over yet. It made her nervous, because there was nothing else left to fight. She checked the Lifestream and the Planet regularly, but there was never anything wrong. No darkness in the mako. No stirrings of a global threat.

When it happened it took her by surprise. She was checking in on Zack when there was a shiver in the Lifestream. A ripple that went against the current. The ripple jostled her position, making her lose the present and take a few startled steps back (if you could call them steps). She shuddered, pain racking her form as the Lifestream contracted around her presence as if it was under attack. She cried out, almost loosing cohesion as the Planet smoothed out the wrinkle in the continuous flow of energy. She got a flash of blonde and startled blue eyes, and then it passed and everything settled.

She kept herself together with will alone. This must be the threat that she had been waiting for. The threat that drove Cloud to keep moving and striving to improve. She reached into the Lifestream, growing to encompass it all, feeling it pour through her as she searched. Looking for any anomaly that would account for the pain that she felt. She found nothing. No threat, no darkness, no whispers. She let the Lifestream go. Shrinking back to just a single soul in the vastness. She turned to the present, quickly scrolling through the images of a peaceful world. Watching the present buzz past until something caught her eye.

She stopped the image. The side of a road in the middle of a plain. A familiar sword. Leaning on a familiar motorcycle. A small fire turning the embers. It was a familiar scene. There was just one thing missing. Cloud. She stepped into the present. Her presence nothing more than the hint of a breeze, but the scene she had been watching appeared around her. She did a three hundred and sixty degree turn. There was just a sense of calm. A peaceful night to watch the stars.

"Cloud!" She calls. Her voice echoing further than it should. The sound waves seem to travel the whole planet before returning to her. There is a single word. Reverberating with the voices of the world.

"GONE!"

It her too long to figure it out. His path was almost completely gone by the time that she made her decision. She was not going to let him do this alone. Aerith faced the Lifestream, standing against the current. Her path was going to be hard, but she had never shied away from that before. Saving the world had been hard as well. The first step was the easiest, the hundreds that followed almost erased her.


End file.
